Slipknot’s Jay Weinberg discusses replacing Joey Jordison: “It was a lot of learning”

Jordison left the metal icons in 2013

Slipknot drummer Jay Weinberg has discussed the pressure he felt when replacing original drummer Joey Jordison in the band.

Weinberg replaced Jordison ahead of the release of the band’s 2014 album ‘.5: The Gray Chapter’.

Speaking to Spain’s The Metal Circus, Weinberg spoke of his first experiences of joining the band. “I wouldn’t say I was walking on eggshells. For me, I understood my role in the context of a band changing its dynamic dramatically, working on new songs without two of its founding members [Jordison and late bassist Paul Gray].

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“That was huge for a band that had, at this point, existed almost 20 years or something. It wasn’t like walking on eggshells, ’cause I knew the role that I was coming in to play.”

Joey Jordison performing with Slipknot.

“I haven’t been in this band as long as they have, so it was a lot of learning,” Weinberg added. “And still, to this day, I approach this band with open eyes and open ears, ’cause I think every day, I’m learning more and more. And every day, I think, as an individual and perhaps as a collective, we get closer and closer to understanding the potential of what the band really has.

“I had a lot to bring and a lot to prove — not to an audience,” he added. “I didn’t concern myself with that, because I can’t control that — I can’t control how a listening audience is going to accept new Slipknot songs that are my first songs playing with the band or whatever; I can’t control how anybody’s gonna react to that. But I had a lot to prove to myself, I had a lot to prove to my new bandmates, that, for whatever reason, they were drawn to my playing and that I was asked to be a part of their band for a reason.”

Joey Jordison recently shared his memories of Slipknot’s classic 1999 debut album as the band celebrated 21 years of the record. “It’s almost hard to believe how these years have flown by like blast beats,” he wrote. “That album was [and] will always be some of the absolute best memories of my life.”

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Slipknot released new album ‘We Are Not Your Kind’ in 2019, and won Best Band In The World at the NME Awards 2020 earlier this year.

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